This A-Profiler we bring you artist, illustrator, musician, Cynthia Ignacio who got her start in animation for Walt Disney Feature Animation and has moved on to becoming an art director for a theme park design company. Ignacio also is a musician with an ever growing guitar collection and a soft spot for "cartoon" guitars. Find out more about this multi-talented artist, how she got started, and what influences her music.

Your site URL:
cynthiaignacio.blogspot.com

What is your ethnicity?
My parents are from the Philippines - I was born in America.

Have you always been interested in artistic things? What was the first artistic thing you remember doing as a child?
When I was little, my sister was the artist in the family. I started drawing along with her. We used to share a bedroom when we were kids, and she tells me she used to hang up all my drawings on our wall (I can't recall it...). I do remember I was the only kid in kindergarten who used to color my skies blue all the way down to the horizon. The other children would draw about a half-inch strip of blue across the top of their drawings, for some reason.

You've worked in animation before, what was that like?
When I was looking at colleges, I had been planning on becoming a children's book or editorial illustrator. I'd also started reading comic books (1987 was a renaissance year in the comic book industry), and ended up going to the Pratt Institute because they had an association with Marvel Comics. Upon graduating, I got offered a job at Walt Disney Feature Animation. The first film I worked on was The Lion King. During their golden era (the 90's), Disney had incredible parties. The most extravagant was probably Hunchback of Notre Dame - the crew flew down to New Orleans for the premiere. We were feted at the Preservation Hall (served by people in period costume), and on a river boat that cruised up the Mississippi (served by famed Creole chefs). There was even a Mardi Gras-style parade held in our honor (people threw Disney merchandise from the parade floats). Then there was yet another party after the film screening, which was held at the Astrodome.

Now you are working for a theme park design company. How did you transition from animation to a concept artist? Was it an easy transition?
I designed backgrounds for the Disney animated films - their division is called "layout." I transitioned into concept design with the help of my good friend, Mitchel Bernal (creator of "Skelanimals"). The last project I worked on at Disney Feature Animation, was Atlantis. After that, I started working for Imagineering, Disney's theme park division. I have since worked at just about every major television animation studio in town. I've also designed a couple independent live action films (I storyboarded Justin Lin's film, Annapolis). I currently work as an art director for a theme park company called Thinkwell.

What has your proudest achievement as an artist been so far? And which you wish you could forget?
Some of my best design-work was done at Sony Studios, with supervisor Vince Toyama. I also like the work I did for Glen Murakami, at Warner Brothers. Sci-fi/Action Adventure is my bread and butter.

BUT...my favorite job ever, was working with Alan Muraoka on a music video. Why? Because the music video was for the Foo Fighters' drummer, Taylor Hawkins!!! It was awesome!!!

I remember working on several character concepts for Disney's Mulan. Ric Sluiter, the art director, told me that studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg pointed to one of my pieces and said, "This drawing personifies what Mulan is all about." Suddenly, I started seeing that drawing everywhere - most memorably, plastered on a display at a SIGGRAPH convention. I don't know if it was one of my strongest drawings, really...but there it was.

You also are a musician and playwright. What are you working on with respect to your music and plays? Is there anything you can't do?
I've written poems and short stories since I was a child. I started writing plays about ten years ago - it's sort of strange to think that John Cho and Steve Park were my playwrighting classmates (at the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute), along with the amazing Judy Soo Hoo and Tim Toyama. I wrote my first musical about two years ago, called Rock God Opera. Last year, I joined the Academy for New Musical Theatre, to further develop my skills at the genre.

I am also the resident set designer for Lodestone Theatre Ensemble.

Who are some of your musical influences? How did you get started in music?
Growing up, I listened to whatever my brother listened to - namely, The Doors and Pink Floyd. My bandmates have influenced my tastes further, and I now listen to Foo Fighters, Audioslave, Weezer, and Garbage (among many others). I am also a big fan of Queens of the Stoneage, Tenacious D, Arctic Monkeys, and the Beatles. I recently saw Rocco deLucca play a live acoustic set in Silver Lake - his slide playing is incredible.

Back in 2003, I'd picked up a magazine with The White Stripes on the front cover. Intrigued, I bought one of their cd's, and fell in love with their music. Shortly after that, I bought my very first guitar, and started playing. In 2005, one of my coworkers at Warner Brothers, drafted me into his band. One of my favorite songs to play is the bass line for Sunshine of Your Love.

How many guitars do you own? Do you have a favorite?
How many guitars do I have? Too many!

Of course, I own an Eastman reissue of the famed Airline Jetson.

One of my tendencies is to collect "cartoon" guitars. I own a Schecter that's sculpted in the shape of Mojo Jojo. I also have an SG that has Emily the Strange designs on it. My main instrument is a Fender Badtzmaru bass.

And there are others...

When you need to take a break from your creative side, what do you enjoy doing?
I love shopping for art books - I just shopped today at Stuart Ng's (every artist in the animation industry buys their books from him). Of the books I've bought lately, I highly recommend the collected works of Charley Harper.

I am also addicted to reading manga, and am a big fan of the storyline, Nana.

There used to be a great little tea room in Glendale, where I used to sit and write on weekends...I was really sad when it closed. Now I go to Chado in Pasadena and Aroma in Studio City.

And finally, what is your advice to other multi-talented APA artists out there?
My friend Diane Chang and I spent our younger years hanging out with the folks at APEX and many other APA organizations. We donated a lot of our time to the community and helped many of our fellow APA artists, by putting on fashion shows, gallery shows, playwrighting showcases, creating websites, you name it. I used to be a writer for Yolk magazine, where I helped promote fellow writers and artists by interviewing them for articles.

I made a lot of really good friends, made great connections, and gave back to the community.

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This issue of A-Profiler is brought to you by Nelson Wong.
Special thanks to Cynthia Ignacio.

Photos used with permission.
Copyright retained by original copyright holder(s).